With the development of wireless communication and information processing technologies, portable electronic devices such as mobile telephones and electronic notebooks are now in widespread use. These electronic devices enable consumers to enjoy high technology services anytime and anywhere. Consumers particularly favor foldable electronic devices due to their convenience and ease of storage.
Generally, a foldable electronic device has most of the electronics in one housing, called the body. The other housing, called the cover, normally contains fewer electronic components than the body. Other foldable electronic devices have all the electronics in the body, with the cover containing no electronics. Various types of hinge mechanisms are used to join a body and a cover of a foldable electronic device, so that the cover can unfold up from and fold down upon the body. Nowadays, hinge mechanisms with one or more springs are preferred by many users. Although suitable for some foldable radiotelephones, a hinge mechanism with a spring is not suitable for certain miniaturized foldable radiotelephones. This is because the housing of a miniaturized radiotelephone may not have sufficient bulk to sturdily withstand the forces generated by the spring. For these miniaturized radiotelephones it is necessary to increase the size of the housing so that it has sufficient bulk to withstand the forces generated by the spring. This in effect increases the longitudinal size of the hinge mechanism, thus increasing the overall volume of the foldable electronic device.
Furthermore, with the development of the technologies of video, image and vocal communications, foldable electronic devices having cameras installed therein have become popular. Photographic image data obtained by the camera can be transmitted by the foldable electronic device in real time. The camera may be mounted in a main body or in a cover of the foldable electronic device. Alternatively, the camera may be mounted in the hinge mechanism installed between the body and the cover. This enables the camera to be rotated within a range of angles, in order to conveniently point the camera in different directions to take desired photographs. However, the photographing part cannot rotate independently from the upper case, and thus cannot rotate to and be oriented in any desired direction.
What is needed, therefore, is a hinge assembly which overcomes above-described shortcomings.